Suggestion: Keep the Dungeon Permanently Open on Low-Pop Shards like Origin

NikonUS · July 17

I wanted to bring up an issue that many of us on smaller shards like Origin are experiencing with the current Event setup. The problem is that due to the low population, it's nearly impossible to get enough players together to make meaningful progress—especially against the final boss.

For example, as of writing this, the final boss is active in the city, but there are only two of us here. We can't make any progress, and it's incredibly discouraging. We've spent hours trying to recruit help through general chat, but the response is always the same: "We just don’t have the people."

We’d like to kindly ask you to consider keeping the dungeon open all the time on low-population shards. That way, even if we don’t have the numbers to take down the boss, we at least have something to do and can continue participating in the event at our own pace.

We really appreciate the content, but right now, the way it’s structured unintentionally locks out small communities from enjoying it.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Lokea · July 17

I wonder if people realize you don't need a lot of players - the event scales up or down very nicely. I've done some late-night runs with just 5-6 people and we've pulled it off without too much difficulty. The main thing is, starting out, only run a maximum of 2 cats when you have a small group (and if it's really small, just one catapult) as the spawn increases with more catapults. We know roughly how many ammo kits are needed, so keep people away from the main gate (and from triggering more spawn) until you are done with ammo and get the message that the gate has fallen. Plus, with a small group, you need everybody keeping the catapult operators alive.

When the gate falls, we try to zerg rush inside and leave the spawn at the gate rather than engaging it.

Once you're inside, stay together (don't split up for commanders) and keep each other rezzed. We did it with a small group the other night (anywhere from 5-6 people up to 8-9) and the only major problem we had was commanders who were near each. We'd be fighting one, and the other would aggro on us. What we had to do is keep the commanders split up by making sure we didn't go anywhere near the other commanders' territory, so we'd have to move them around.

Even the final boss wasn't that bad (of course it depends on the boss).

And last night I did it with a fairly small group and it went really smooth. It really is impressive how well it scales.

Norry · July 17

My feedback on this is that the city/bosses are all down by the time i get off work and have a chance to play.

NikonUS · July 17

3 hours since i posted!

not a single soul showed up. so , How can I enjoy the event? there is NO ONE around and on my playtime, I cant participate and more and more people say the same! so @Kyronix pls put some thoughts about keeping the dungeon open

NikonUS · July 17

Over 4 Hours, at Origin Shard. only myself and 2 thief's doing chests.

so, people say that we need to give up playing our own shard and go play Atlantic because that is the only popular shard?

@Kyronix

all shards deserve the chances to participate, even if they have 2 players, 4 players, if that is not the case, than pls rethink the Shard Bound stuff!!!

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/hj/irke0ayv233f.png

AnglesWings · July 17

@Community Manager

By all means, come visit Origin or Baja or any other low pop shard, is depressing!!, you'll quickly see there's almost no one around to talk to.

I completely agree that shard-bound items are hurting low-population shards, where we mainly have casual players dropping in from time to time.

We still have two more months of this event ahead. If people aren’t interested in participating on smaller shards, don’t you think we need an alternative for those of us who do want to play? I don’t want to be forced to play on another shard just to be stuck with shard-bound items that I can’t bring home or worse, miss out entirely on content because no one else wants to play on my home shard.

I’d support something similar to what the devs did in the last event — like opening a second location (e.g., the Hives), or even better, making the dungeon permanently accessible. Even if it resets every few hours, that’s fine — just let us open the gate once the wall to the city is breached.

Pawain · July 17

Boss explodes after 2 hours and dungeon can be opened?

AnglesWings · July 17

uhm. never heard of that and i can guarantee that I been here for over 4 hours and boss was there the entire time, full health @Pawain

Pawain · July 17

AnglesWings said:

uhm. never heard of that and i can guarantee that I been here for over 4 hours and boss was there the entire time, full health @ Pawain

I'm saying they could add that mechanic if this is an issue. Krampus does similar.

AnglesWings · July 17

Pawain said:

AnglesWings said:

uhm. never heard of that and i can guarantee that I been here for over 4 hours and boss was there the entire time, full health @ Pawain

I'm saying they could add that mechanic if this is an issue. Krampus does similar.

Boss explodes after 2 hours and dungeon can be opened? @Kyronix ; GENIUS IDEA.

Grimbeard · July 18

AnglesWings said:

@ "Community Manager"

By all means, come visit Origin or Baja or any other low pop shard, is depressing!!, you'll quickly see there's almost no one around to talk to.
I completely agree that shard-bound items are hurting low-population shards, where we mainly have casual players dropping in from time to time.

We still have two more months of this event ahead. If people aren’t interested in participating on smaller shards, don’t you think we need an alternative for those of us who do want to play? I don’t want to be forced to play on another shard just to be stuck with shard-bound items that I can’t bring home or worse, miss out entirely on content because no one else wants to play on my home shard.

I’d support something similar to what the devs did in the last event — like opening a second location (e.g., the Hives), or even better, making the dungeon permanently accessible. Even if it resets every few hours, that’s fine — just let us open the gate once the wall to the city is breached.

You keep Baja out of this we are just fine again I suggest it's the quality of community rather than quantity

Tannta · July 18

I'm interested in this topic.

I think the design of this event is very good.

However, when I look at it compared to the story lore, I feel something is off.

The gate from Ankh Dungeon remains closed after the champions spawn, so the Void army doesn't advance over time.

If the Void army doesn't advance, Britannia won't be in any danger, so there's no point in killing the Champion.

In other words, I think a good story development would be for the champions to spawn and, after a certain amount of time has passed, the gate from the Ankh Dungeon opens and the Void army's invasion begins.

I think this will also ensure that casual players don't get left behind.

A word of advice for players on low-population shards:

The nine leaders and four champions are all capable of being killed by solo players with the generic warrior template.

It doesn't have to be Sampire, but I would recommend adopting Bushido to reduce risk.

Community Manager · July 18

AnglesWings said:

@ "Community Manager"

By all means, come visit Origin or Baja or any other low pop shard, is depressing!!, you'll quickly see there's almost no one around to talk to.
I completely agree that shard-bound items are hurting low-population shards, where we mainly have casual players dropping in from time to time.

We still have two more months of this event ahead. If people aren’t interested in participating on smaller shards, don’t you think we need an alternative for those of us who do want to play? I don’t want to be forced to play on another shard just to be stuck with shard-bound items that I can’t bring home or worse, miss out entirely on content because no one else wants to play on my home shard.

I’d support something similar to what the devs did in the last event — like opening a second location (e.g., the Hives), or even better, making the dungeon permanently accessible. Even if it resets every few hours, that’s fine — just let us open the gate once the wall to the city is breached.

Thanks for your feedback! I will be sure to pass this along to the Dev team.

Lokea · July 18

It would be great if the event lasted a bit longer. It's been a blast, even with reduced drops and no obelisk in sight. I've gotten all of the rewards I wanted, and so I'm mainly playing for fun, but some players who have a more restricted playing time, especially on the smaller shards, are having a tough time.

And on top of that, NL is happening. A lot of us are ignoring that for Riftborne.

keven2002 · July 18

Lokea said:

It would be great if the event lasted a bit longer. It's been a blast, even with reduced drops and no obelisk in sight. I've gotten all of the rewards I wanted, and so I'm mainly playing for fun, but some players who have a more restricted playing time, especially on the smaller shards, are having a tough time.

And on top of that, NL is happening. A lot of us are ignoring that for Riftborne.

No thank you on extending the event; I don't think that's a viable solution to "fix" low pop shards having the issue of enough people... if anything it's going to be even less populated the longer it goes. In fact, even on ATL I'm seeing less people on stages 1-4 this week than I did 2-3 weeks ago... that number will continue to decrease as the event goes on.

IMO the solution for the smaller shards (for future events) is that the stages that prevent the next stage (ie 1-3 this event) should be on a timer like stage 4 (let's say 2 hours per stage) so if there is no progress after that time then the event moves to the next stage.

Larisa · July 21

I have to say that just because people are not on at the time you are does not make Origin a *Dead* shard. I have had no problems killing the bosses many many times. It's a bit slow during the day....but I am assuming it's because people have lives and jobs lol. We do have an early morning crew but gathering the ingredients needed seems to be the most difficult.

I have plenty, I can sustain the shard through the end of the event with no problems on my own, but there are a few other dedicated crafters on Origin that help.

Just call out in Gen Chat...we have usually had the dungeon open early mornings and again earlier in the evening.

Garret · July 30

Event should have another tab with rewards, 1 copy of each event reward, account bound for cost of 1 minor art, so you can have at least one account bound version of every one event artifact. You will be able to transfer your character without need to collect another event set on different shards, you will be able to get at least one copy of art if ur server is dead, you will get one copy for just participate if you have not that much time or will to farm all the event for 3 month but need at least 1 copy of event items.

Grimbeard · July 30

Garret said:

Event should have another tab with rewards, 1 copy of each event reward, account bound for cost of 1 minor art, so you can have at least one account bound version of every one event artifact. You will be able to transfer your character without need to collect another event set on different shards, you will be able to get at least one copy of art if ur server is dead, you will get one copy for just participate if you have not that much time or will to farm all the event for 3 month but need at least 1 copy of event items.

This not a terrible idea the first tot had turn in ten for one so I'd support turning in ×× number of shard bound for account bound. I do feel shard bound until equipped then account bound is a better way...until EM drops and PS become shard bound it's kinda not stopping the small shards being farmed and in EM events being actually manipulated for the offsharders benefit.

keven2002 · July 30

Grimbeard said:

Garret said:

Event should have another tab with rewards, 1 copy of each event reward, account bound for cost of 1 minor art, so you can have at least one account bound version of every one event artifact. You will be able to transfer your character without need to collect another event set on different shards, you will be able to get at least one copy of art if ur server is dead, you will get one copy for just participate if you have not that much time or will to farm all the event for 3 month but need at least 1 copy of event items.

This not a terrible idea the first tot had turn in ten for one so I'd support turning in ×× number of shard bound for account bound. I do feel shard bound until equipped then account bound is a better way...until EM drops and PS become shard bound it's kinda not stopping the small shards being farmed and in EM events being actually manipulated for the offsharders benefit.

This just allows botters/scripters to take all their shard bound items and trade them in for acct bound and allows them to cross-shard farm on low pop shards; making it even easier for them to bot... no thanks until they start mass banning the 3rd party client cheats & scripts.

Grimbeard · July 30

keven2002 said:

Grimbeard said:

Garret said:

Event should have another tab with rewards, 1 copy of each event reward, account bound for cost of 1 minor art, so you can have at least one account bound version of every one event artifact. You will be able to transfer your character without need to collect another event set on different shards, you will be able to get at least one copy of art if ur server is dead, you will get one copy for just participate if you have not that much time or will to farm all the event for 3 month but need at least 1 copy of event items.

This not a terrible idea the first tot had turn in ten for one so I'd support turning in ×× number of shard bound for account bound. I do feel shard bound until equipped then account bound is a better way...until EM drops and PS become shard bound it's kinda not stopping the small shards being farmed and in EM events being actually manipulated for the offsharders benefit.

This just allows botters/scripters to take all their shard bound items and trade them in for acct bound and allows them to cross-shard farm on low pop shards; making it even easier for them to bot... no thanks until they start mass banning the 3rd party client cheats & scripts.

No one bots for their own gear if there's no profit then no botting

keven2002 · July 30

You said...

Grimbeard said:

This not a terrible idea the first tot had turn in ten for one so I'd support turning in ×× number of shard bound for account bound. I do feel shard bound until equipped then account bound is a better way...

Meaning bots will still farm/script to get items for their suits (ie equip those items) and then farm for shard bound items to sell to others (they would not equip)...they would do this on many more shards AND use these toons (with account bound transferrable suits) to also farm everything else on the shard worth value when an event is not going on....

Like I said, this is a horrible idea and only gives botters/scripters/cheaters MORE power.

LilyGrace · July 30

keven2002 said:

Grimbeard said:

Garret said:

Event should have another tab with rewards, 1 copy of each event reward, account bound for cost of 1 minor art, so you can have at least one account bound version of every one event artifact. You will be able to transfer your character without need to collect another event set on different shards, you will be able to get at least one copy of art if ur server is dead, you will get one copy for just participate if you have not that much time or will to farm all the event for 3 month but need at least 1 copy of event items.

This not a terrible idea the first tot had turn in ten for one so I'd support turning in ×× number of shard bound for account bound. I do feel shard bound until equipped then account bound is a better way...until EM drops and PS become shard bound it's kinda not stopping the small shards being farmed and in EM events being actually manipulated for the offsharders benefit.

This just allows botters/scripters to take all their shard bound items and trade them in for acct bound and allows them to cross-shard farm on low pop shards; making it even easier for them to bot... no thanks until they start mass banning the 3rd party client cheats & scripts.

How about the prizes drop into your pack account bound to begin when you turn in your drops? And shard bound goes away all together? If it lands in your pack and belongs to your account and you can travel with it, who needs to buy off a farmer?

Off the top of my head, perhaps it would mean farming and selling of drops would go up. But if we as players can earn enough drops for ourselves why would we need to buy drops from other players?

I realize not everyone has the same amount of time to play. Or they may only want the prizes and not want to take part in the events at all. I suppose that could make things more difficult for them to collect prizes if they can't readily buy drops from farming bots. Honestly? I don't see a lot of people shouting out that they've drops for sale to begin with. Most seem to be doing OK all on their own.

I think, by and large, most players believe, for the sake of average, honest, non-farming, non-bot players, inroads need to be made that allow us to keep the gear we've earned when we want to go off our home shard.

With the potions that are created that add to damage done and quicker kills, and the length of time we're extended on how long the event will run, I think reasonable folks would be satisfied on how well they'd do at the turn-in guy. Additionally, if you have or can build a strong core community, or even just a tight smaller group, there will be players who can spend a good amount of time collecting drops that they can then share with their group.

Seth · July 30

Pawain said:

Boss explodes after 2 hours and dungeon can be opened?

Great idea. I believe siege attackers should receive rare, valuable items that can’t be obtained anywhere else. This would motivate players to actively throw bombs and fire catapults, instead of just standing by. Right now, everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move—but with a unique reward on the line, players would be racing to break down the wall rather than sitting on the sidelines.

Seth · July 30

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/a6/ym8uwa7v87lv.png

Its losing steam...

keven2002 · July 30

LilyGrace said:

How about the prizes drop into your pack account bound to begin when you turn in your drops? And shard bound goes away all together? If it lands in your pack and belongs to your account and you can travel with it, who needs to buy off a farmer?

Off the top of my head, perhaps it would mean farming and selling of drops would go up. But if we as players can earn enough drops for ourselves why would we need to buy drops from other players?

These 2 paragraphs seem to contradict each other; if drops start out as account bound then would be anyone selling drops bc everything is account bound?

I'm against making drops account bound in general though because what if people aren't able to play for various life reasons OR only use one account? Now they can't have those items ever (or until they are recycled)? Heck I've even played all events and there have been times where I am outfitting a new toon or changing a template and I need to go buy X item because I thought I farmed enough but ended using the 1 or 2 extra I had.

Personally, I think shard bound is fine and nothing needs to be changed because there is no need to make it easier for botters to shard hop with "L33t suits" to every single shard as they please for every event/EM/etc. Honestly I think for most people it's really just a "work around" or "cheat" to go farm wherever it's easiest/most drops and then bring them back to whatever shard. Sorry, I just don't agree with that; I don't care if people are mad they have to move pieces around on their suits when shard hopping. If people want to shard hop to play X event or whatever on other shards then they can farm THAT shard during the event.

Perfect example is that I play Origin sometimes to early test stuff so I've stopped farming on ATL (outside of satchels) and started spending that time farming on Origin. I've already gotten my 1 FC sash (actually picked up a second one for durability sake) and a veilkeeper's branch to go along with my mantle & gloves of archlich I picked up from previous events. I am totally in favor of actually being required to play the shards you farm.

Slightly related, I think EM drops should be shard bound too. It's funny (and also sad) that basically every single drop from these events ends up on ATL with ppl trying to sell for top dollar literally within an hour of the EM event ending. It just happened the other night with multiple people trying to sell the drops from an EU event just 50min after it ended.... that goes against what the EM events are for (IMO).

LilyGrace · July 30

No, that's not what I'm saying. I mean "drops" as in the drops you get when you're killing monsters stay shard bound. Prizes that fall into your pack when you turn in your drops I think should be account bound.

If we all can get enough drops, as in shard bound drops from killing mobs, it pulls the teeth out of bots because we don't need any of the shard bound drops they get off monsters, and they wouldn't be able to sell the prizes they get from turning drops in because they're account bound.

We're going to have to agree to disagree. I think it's punishing for players who aren't power-gamers, who don't have enough time to develop and earn suits on multiple shards but do like to play on different shards because they know and play with various groups.

If we get rid of the need for what power-gamers and bots are offering they won't be as interested in coming around to farm mob drops from events and prizes from the turn-in menu.

We'll again have to agree to disagree when it comes to EM events. Why is there a harm in large groups of players enjoying EM events on various shards? And what harm is it to another player if whoever it is that gets an EM event prize sells it where ever they end up selling it? If I get an EM event drop that I like I'll keep it. If I don't care for it much I might give it away or sell it. Though so far I've only given them away and not sold an item. I've never had a vendor actually. At least not that I can remember.

I'm kinda sick at devs coming at these problems by taking things away and being more restrictive. It seems to chronically punish the wrong players.

Grimbeard · July 30

The harm comes when the residents of origin want em events at a time convenient for them and off sharders flood the shard and vote for a time that doesn't conflict with another shards event this should never have been allowed

Garret · July 30

not everything should be account bound only 1 copy of each artifact it will be aka promotion and to support dead servers and to be able transfer one of ur character. My idead was about it. Anything on top should stay as it is.

LilyGrace · July 30

Grimbeard said:

The harm comes when the residents of origin want em events at a time convenient for them and off sharders flood the shard and vote for a time that doesn't conflict with another shards event this should never have been allowed

Why not set up the voting differently? Ask players to respond with their vote on a time via a link in the news letter for instance. Whatever the majority votes for goes across the boards for all shards.

If the majority votes they want EM events to take place @ 9 PM on Saturdays that’s when it will be. Players would have to be more selective about where they play rather than trying to stagger times on shards.

That would tone down the big influx of the out-of-towners that seem unwanted by some, but still allow for a more fair majority rule vote. Rather than allowing for unwanted influence from players voting on shards they don’t call home.

Grimbeard · July 30

LilyGrace said:

Grimbeard said:

The harm comes when the residents of origin want em events at a time convenient for them and off sharders flood the shard and vote for a time that doesn't conflict with another shards event this should never have been allowed

Why not set up the voting differently? Ask players to respond with their vote on a time via a link in the news letter for instance. Whatever the majority votes for goes across the boards for all shards.

If the majority votes they want EM events to take place @ 9 PM on Saturdays that’s when it will be. Players would have to be more selective about where they play rather than trying to stagger times on shards.

That would tone down the big influx of the out-of-towners that seem unwanted by some, but still allow for a more fair majority rule vote. Rather than allowing for unwanted influence from players voting on shards they don’t call home.

Em events are meant for shard residents not Atlantic profiters

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Suggestion: Keep the Dungeon Permanently Open on Low-Pop Shards like Origin

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